Product Description

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always needing money but never badly enough to keep a job. His day-to-day existence spirals into an endless litany of pathetic whores, sordid rooms, dreary embraces, and drunken brawls, as he makes his bitter, brilliant way from one drink to the next.

Charles Bukowski's posthumous legend continues to grow. Factotum is a masterfully vivid evocation of slow-paced, low-life urbanity and alcoholism, and an excellent introduction to the fictional world of Charles Bukowski.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28910 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-05
• Released on: 2002-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author

Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in Andernach, Germany, and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived for fifty years. He published his first story in 1944, when he was twenty-four, and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp (1994).

Customer Reviews

classic bukowski
This is a great introduction to Bukowski's prose. Love it or hate it,
Bukowski's honesty and directness make him a special writer and that is why he is still popular today.

Life and work through the melancholy glasses of alcoholism
Extolled author Charles Bukowski wrote 'Factotum' in 1975, but with all the references to World War II in it, the tale seems to be about an earlier time, just after the war (though this is more my opinion than fact).

Henry "Hank" Chinaski is an alcoholic. One step above skid row (and at times even closer than that) Hank's main concern in life is maintaining a job long enough to feed his addiction. However, because of his addiction and his impulsive tendencies, Hank is never able to keep employment for any length of time. Bukowski takes us with thought and feeling through Hank's life, wandering from job to job and woman to woman. New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Miami; wherever he goes, his addiction never allows any type of fresh start. He walks off one job clearly stating he needed a drink, highlighting his careless outlook about employment in general.

'Factotum' takes us step by step through a portion of Hank's life, most of it looking for work, and portraying his dysfunction at work and tapping into his inner reflections about the job and how much he can put up with before folding and getting that next drink. Life slips by Hank as he contemplates his situations. His is an hour-by-hour existence, without much thought to either past or future. His closest female companion of the line-up he wades through with offhand affection is Jan, a woman with a hot temper and a lusty personality. But Hank eventually loses everything he touches, and accepts it with an unrealistic serenity not usually found in human nature. This isn't to say that Hank isn't at times violent, but his attitude about it lacks any firm conviction of it.

Bukowski has written a intensely emotional novel in a quietly reflective tone. His prose is almost poetry. Who else could capture the reader so powerfully over the subject of a born loser and a personality normally avoided? The book grabbed me from the beginning and kept me reading until I was finished. They made a movie of the book in 2005, called 'Factotum' after the book, that was very good. The movie reconstructs the order of Hank's life events, and updates the time from '75 to a more modern era.

Some interesting quotes from the book are "Slow-paced, low-life urbanity and alcoholism" from the back flap, and "When you drank the world was still out there, but for the moment it didn't have you by the throat" from the content. I loved this excerpt from page 188; "I bought an eight year old automobile and stayed on the job until December. Then came the Christmas party. That was December 24th. There were to be drinks, food, music, and dancing. I didn't like parties. I didn't know how to dance and people frightened me, especially people at parties. They attempted to be sexy and gay and witty and although they hoped they were good at it, they weren't. They were bad at it. Their trying so hard only made it worse."

I highly recommend both book and movie. Enjoy!

Repetitive
"Factotum" is a story that goes nowhere but around and around.
It's the same thing: Henry gets a job, gets a chick, tons of drinking and getting drunk,loses or quits the job, is poor, gets another job, a new chick, more drinking, loses or quits the job....etc....
"Ham on Rye" and "Post Office" were much better.